


Paint & Vocals

by SheKissesTurians



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Eventual Romance, First Contact War, Interspecies Awkwardness, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Language Barrier, Relay 314, Romance, Turians, Understanding, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-03 05:20:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12741819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheKissesTurians/pseuds/SheKissesTurians
Summary: Set in the timeline of the First Contact War, a turian vessel crash lands on the human territory, Nevera Basen. A vacant forrest of land, there is only one human there to meet the fallen soldier. Wounded and alone Sparatus is left to the mercy and kindness of the human female who appears at his crash sight. With communications signals down, Sparatus has no choice but to accept her company. The two are now presented in their own battle of language as they try to understand one another, slowly bridging the gape between turian and human differences.





	1. 1st and 2nd Statements

_Nevera Basen 2157._

_Contact was made between turian Lieutenant Aeius Sparatus and human Arabella Thorn. Upon the dismissal of Arabella Thorn’s human citizenship the Council has requested that statements of the incident be recorded by both Aeius Sparatus and Arabella Thorn for further review._

 

* * *

 

Arabella Thorn

1st Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

The war between human and Turians was still raging strong. It was our first contact with any being outside of our own. It was proof that we were not alone in the universe and I could not have been more excited! Well, I was initially so. That was until I heard that we were under attack. They didn’t seem to have a primary goal though. It didn’t seem that it was our resources they wanted, or our planet. In fact, it was almost as though there was some vast miss understanding.

I couldn’t hate them like the rest of humanity at the end of the day. I can’t count how many time my mother lectured me about the rising conflict or pleaded that I took the next shuttle home, but something in my gut told me not leave. I had worked for so long and so hard to earn this artists residency. There was no way that I could turn back. Besides, I was just a young woman alone in the woods. I was no threat. What would the turians have wanted with me? This was not a combat field, I was surrounded by deserted forests for miles. From that viewpoint, Nevera Basen felt like it was the best place to stay put. The odds of my shuttle back to earth being shot down were highly more probable. So I stayed. I stayed in my small cabin with my paints and my printmaking tools. I continued on with my work as though nothing else was going on in the galaxy. At least, that is what I tried to do… nature has it that my luck was never so perfect.

It was early in the morning that I heard the impact. It shook the forest ground like a fault line quake and pushed back the tree branches with a strong peal of wind. Then, there was nothing but silence. I stool motionless outside, shocked by what the noise could have been until the birds finally began chirping once more and the woods seemed to return back to its normal nature. That was when I knew it was time for me to investigate.

As soon as I had stepped into the meadow clearing I saw it. A ship, like nothing I had ever witnessed before. I felt my heart skip a beat in both fear and excitement. The vessel was not an alliance ship, it was turian. The damage was immense. Smoke billowed from the seams. The hull was completely pried open from the landing while the nose of the craft embedded into the darkened ground. I ducked behind the tree next to me as a loud cry bled into the air. It didn’t need to be human for be to understand the pain behind the voice.

There was a survivor and they were hurt.

Without a second thought I raced over to the ship. It was not until I ventured around the vessel that I saw him. Dressed in heavy black armor, he used his fore arms to drag his body out of the wreckage. Inch by painfully inch until he was completely free. There was a truly un-human distinction about him. From the spiked fringe that sat upon his plated face, to the hocks that bent his legs back at an angle. With the push of his arms he tried to stand but his legs gave out sending him back to the ground with another loud keen of pain.

Though I could not see it through the dark armor covering the blackened color of his plates, his leg was injured. I leaned back on my heels, shifting my weight from one foot to another, the small adjustment sent the loud crack of a twig beneath my boot echoing into the meadow. Immediately the turian’s head snapped up in my direction. Before I could even register his movement, there was a gun pointed in my direction. My arms automatically threw themselves into the air while I dropped to my knees.

“Don’t shoot!” my voice projected from my throat while the barrel of his weapon maintained its focus on me. “Are you alright? I want to help you!”

The mandibles on the sides of his face tightened around his mouth while his eyes intensely examined my figure. Then, with out any notice, he lowered the weapon to the ground and went back to trying to tend to himself.

Slowly my arms lowered to my side as I maintained my position in the grass. I ended up sitting there for hours, watching him. He had tried to use what appeared to be a radio a few times but finally gave up on that after no success came from his efforts. The turian began to painstakingly drag boxes out of the wreckage by crawling, one by one, until he created a little half circle of supplies around himself.

I knew he never lost attention on my position.

In a way, it felt as though he was waiting for me to make a move. Every time I shifted, whether it was to scratch my arm or swat away a fly, his hand was right back on his weapon. It was probably a good thing that I didn’t want to leave. I was content on just watching him. The turian was as magnificent as I had imagined, but even better in person than the photos I had seen from the news.

After about three hours of observing my occasional shifts and swats was no longer any immediate concern for him. His focus now was on tending to his leg. I finally figured it was broken from the way the butt of his palm hit it back into place before he began to bind it straight with two pieces from the wreckage. I felt a little surge of excitement at seeming a familiar behavior come from this foreign being.

“Do you need me to get you anything?” I finally decided to shout out. Of course it warranted me another aim of his weapon. For the first time he spoke back to me.

It was a very guttural language that vibrated with a dual toned voice- I could not understand any of it. He tried again; I could hear the same pattern repeat in his vocals. This time he shifted his weapon towards himself before aiming it back to me. I blinked. Did he want me to come over? His hand waved towards himself this time with the use of his voice. This time though, his tone was harsher.

It did not take me long after that to realize that my presence was being demanded. I stood back up and ran over. Up close I was finally able to make out all the individual plates that made up his face. There even appeared to be white paint decorating his natural armor.

He pointed gestured his gun towards the ground. So I stat, then he sat, and that was where the start of my night had begun. I realized at that moment he was no longer planning to let me leave. The turian probably believed there was more humans out there with me.

Now I was his designated hostage.

His gaze never strayed from me while he slowly chewed on some sort of bar he pulled from a pack. This was the beginning of a very long night.

 

* * *

 

Aeius Sparatus

2nd Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

It is almost comical that I had even let her sleep! Since I had been not able to sleep that night I figured she shouldn’t have been able to either, but she just kept talking, and talking, and talking. There was no way I was going to be able to understand her though spirits if she ever tried.

By the morning there was still no sign of any alliance solder coming to retrieve her. It was like nothing I had ever seen. Truthfully, it confused me. This was the complete opposite of how the alliance worked. They always returned for their allies. Always. This time things were different. My first observation was that the strangely black-fringed human female was not wearing the standard alliance armor that I had continuously encountered in the field. In fact, it did not appear to be armor at all.

My second observation was that she was incredibly compliant for any human that I had ever encountered. True, she did not have a weapon of any sort on her, but the humans I had seen would continue to fight with teeth bearing regardless.

The tone of her vocals was passive, compliant, and completely unthreatening in every way shape or form. That was when I realized, this human was nothing more than a civilian, and no one was coming for her. I might have been in a war with the humans but there was no way I would purposefully kill a civilian. That was how the alliance worked, not the turian military. When she awoke the next morning, rubbing her pale fist at her eyes. There was some grass and twigs stuck in her stringy fringe from sleeping in the dirt but she did not appear to take any mind to it. Once again she scanned her surroundings with those non-threatening blue eyes of hers before they landed back on me. This time though I did not raise my gun to her. There was no point. She was of absolutely no threat.

“Go home.” I told her as I shooed her away with my hand. Of course she did not understand me.

“ Woh era uyo eelfngi?” The words left her lips.

“Go h-o-m-e.” I tried speaking slower. Perhaps there was some way that our language over lapped. To my immediate dismay apparently there was not. Her eyes took a direct interest in my leg and before I knew it she was leaning over with her hand slowly reaching towards it with her single vocal humming.

“I ma tusj inggo ot ckech ti.” I watched as her hand slowly inched back towards my leg.

“No.” I swatted it firmly away with the tap of my talons. The look her eyes flashed up to me was like that of a turian child who had just been punished. She cradled her hand at her chest while brushing it lightly with her other one.

“You need to go home.” I tried again pointing off to where I had first seen her appear. Her head turned following the point of my talon before she looked back to me. Once again, she began to reach her other hand out slowly towards my leg. An irritated growl left my throat with my sigh and immediately I noticed her movement stopped. My brow plate raised at this discovery- apparently some expressions did translate over. I growled again until her hand was back at her chest.

By the spirits it was working!

I pointed out towards the forest tree line trying to direct her once more. This was where the small female first surprised me. She released a long drawn out whine from her fleshy mouth. Her eyes looked back to me and she pointed towards my leg, this time not attempting to touch it, just acknowledging it.

I shook my head and then pointed out to the tree line once more. This time, she finally stood up to her feet and headed in the direction I had pointed.

By the spirits it was a miracle!

Now I could finally focus on how to get out of my current situation without having to watch my back over the human female. Before she disappeared into the tree line I watched her glanced back to me. I growled hoping she could hear it, so far that was the only thing she could understand. It worked and she finally disappeared into the woods. Now I had to focus on getting my systems back up and running, or at the very least a distress signal working. Thankfully, I had emergency food stores stocked up. The combined amount between my fallen partners and mine would last for a good month, but only a month. Then it was inevitable starvation.

 

* * *

 

Arabella Thorn

2nd Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

It felt so wrong for me to walk away, to leave him there in the meadow alone! The positive was that at least he was not raising his gun to me any more. That made me sure that at least he had no intention of killing me, but still he did not want me there. Returning to my cabin felt so incredibly wrong. What if some woodland animal tired to attack him? That was the first thought to pass through my mind, but then I remembered his gun so I doubted that there was going to be any problem.

What if an infection grew from his wound? I knew that he had not even taken off his armor to check it. All he did was set and wrap it. Quickly, I hurried into the cabin restroom and pulled out my first aid kit. I had to figure out a way to convince him it was safe to take off his armor. The language barrier was beginning to create an issue though. From the look in his eyes, when I whined he seemed to understand it. Perhaps it was not what I said but how I said it that was the best way to get across what I wanted to communicate. I scanned around cabin for a moment thinking about anything else that I could bring with me. In the end I ended up with my backpack, my sketchbook, and pencil. I also packed a health bar, incase he decided to keep me hostage there again another night, and lastly a first aid kit and some scissors.

When I reached the crashed ship in the meadow clearing I did not see him. Keeping a careful distance I walked around it trying to see if there was any way I could get a view inside. I couldn’t have imagined he would have been able to walk away with that leg of his.

“Hello?” I called out hoping to hear a response, “Hello? Alien friend?” I waited again and soon I noticed the barrel of a gun sticking up out of a knocked out window followed shortly behind by the turian’s long fringe and copper eyes. Once he realized who I was, I could see him outwardly release a sigh before he straightened his posture and lowered his gun. There was an audible grumble of words that exited his throat- now was the time to test my theory.

In taking a deep breath I released a light trill of sound into the air. The turian’s head immediately tilted while his mandibles flitted rapidly at the sides of his face. Setting my backpack on the ground I pulled out the first aid kit and held it into the air.

“Medicine!” I tried to slow the sounds of the word. “Med-i-cine!”

His eyes blinked at me before hobbling out from the side door of the dismantled craft. I smiled before gathering up my backpack into my arms and began walking towards him. The whole time his gaze was firmly focused on the red box in my hands.

“I want to help you.” I kept my voice calm and steady. “We should check your leg.”

His gun rose at me when I was only a few feet from him and I quickly halted my forward motion. Damn it. Once again we were back to the gun pointing.

His jaw lifted in the direction of the first aid kit. I was beginning to understand he did not know what it was.

“Medicine.” I spoke again, carefully kneeling down and opening it to reveal its contents. His eyes scanned them over before a snort exited his nose. I held up the medigel to him, pointed to his leg, then began to rub my own with closed batch. He silently stayed leaning against the doorframe, the gun in his hand laid relaxed at his side. I pursed my lips while trying to figure out what else I could do to get him to understand. Then it hit me. I took the scissors out of my back and began to cut the bottom of my jeans on the same leg he had his wound. I could feel his eyes watching me with interest. After the bottom of my pants was removed, I rubbed the medigel package against my leg and looked up to him. His head shook in response and mine fell back in disbelief. I was good at charades! How in the world was he not understanding this? Unless, that was of course, they didn’t have medigel. It was then I knew what I needed to do. With a quick horizontal strike of the opened scissors I cut the front of my leg. I looked up to him while blood trailed down my shin. His eyes were wide and his mandibles were still. Unless I was reading him wrong, he looked to be in utter shock. I took the opportunity to treat the wound with dressings and disinfectants from the first aid kit before I applied the medigel and bandaged up the self-inflicted cut.

By the look in his eyes it appeared now FINALLY he understood what I had been trying to tell him. The turian held up his finger before pointing it towards me with a short command. I stayed put in the grass figuring that was what he wanted. The he disappeared from a moment into the ship before returning with a small package in his hands. Carefully he approached me and sat down in the grass. With his injured leg outstretched, he rested the pack down onto it in the same manner I had first done when trying to show him I was there to help.

“Ku’thrillen.” His lowered voice hummed while his eyes stayed firmly contacted with mine. I mimicked his motion repeating what I was hoping he was saying.

“Medicine.”

“Ku’thrillen.” He repeated. I nodded my head in return.

“Ku… Ku’thri-ll-en.” I carefully copied. He nodded his head in reward. I smiled victoriously while he began to undo his splint following with the armor from his leg. We were actually communicating! My heart couldn’t have been racing any faster with excitement! It was so thrilling. This was my first contact and it was without violence- well there was guns- a gun- his gun, but he had not used it yet and that was a huge positive!

It was not long before the turian was down to his civvies. Carefully his talons pulled back at the fabric tight to his shin. It was soaked with blue blood. The further he pulled back the more he revealed a large gash adorning his leg. It was not just merely broken leg. I found myself suddenly growing irritated at the sight. Wasn’t he supposed to be a soldier? How did he not know how to properly treat his wounds? I wasn’t even a soldier and I at least had better knowledge than just split it and leave it to fester. I wasted no time and immediately went to open my supplies but the growl of his voice left me frozen in my action. Why was he growling at me again? He knew that I was trying to help him didn’t he?

“ Ku’thrillen.” I held up the medigel to him but he shook his head with an even deeper growl. My eyes crossed when he lifted his own package of medicine into my face.

“Ku’thrillen.” His voice rasped with direct and intently focused eyes. He didn’t want me to use _my_ medigel. He wanted me to use his. I nodded slowly carefully taking it from him without touching his hand.

I wanted to make sure that I didn’t cross any cultural boundaries by doing so and physical contact was a touchy thing…. no pun intended. Though the turian sat back and allowed me to inch my way closer to him, he never released the hold of his pistol and he never allowed me to leave his sight. I knew cleaning the wound had to hurt but the turian failed to even flinch. It was incredible.

After applying his medicine to the wound I wrapped it tightly with gauze.

Again, no reaction.

When I finished his eyes finally shifted down from my face to examine my handy work. With a few grumbled words I couldn’t understand he pointed back to the tree line and spoke the same words he had earlier.

“Treva’ya et meut.”

I turned my head following the path of his finger before I looked back to him. He wanted me to leave, again. A displeased sigh exited my lips. Truthfully I wanted to hang around longer and learn more about his species, maybe even become friends. I knew I should be thankful he had at least allowed me to help him not die. I needed to not push my luck. I could just come back tomorrow and check on him.


	2. 3rd and 4th Statements

Aeius Sparatus

3rd Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

It was now my third day there and I still was unable to get any signals online. There was a war going on out there that I should have been fighting, but instead I was stuck stranded on some spirit forsaken alliance planet. Truthfully, I was beyond the point of frustration. My entire morning had been spent sorting through what little supplies had not gotten damaged during the crash. I had the food rations organized out into one pile, guns and ammo in another, and medigel and medical packs in the final section. Ever so often I would catch myself glancing towards the tree line. That human female had yet to make another appearance today. Her actions from yesterday kept racing through my mind. She had returned with her own supplies to help me and it was… odd, to say the least. I knew she could not be so dumb to be unaware her people were brutally fighting against mine. Yet, there she was showing unprecedented kindness towards me. Never in the field had I encountered a human that has tried to make such an effort towards communication. They always just rushed in, gun blazing, and wasting ammo as though it was air. This human was different, and I was sure it was not because of her sex. The female humans I had encountered were equally as vile as the males, if not more so.

Perhaps it was because she was a civilian? Then again I had heard reports of civilian humans pulling up arms and forcing turian troops to defend against them.

The whole situation was confusing to say the least. Apart of me was still on edge, waiting for other humans to show up and rush through the forest to capture or take me out. If they were out there, they were taking a long time to do so. I know I had thought of her as dumb before, and that opinion still stayed true, but perhaps she did not know a war was going on? Perhaps this was some isolated colony that had been shut out of communications? As my thoughts drifted away I noticed movement from the corner of my eye. There in the tree line, as though called upon by my thoughts alone, there she was. She watched me for a few moments with what appeared to be a large pad of paper held under one arm while a grey box was tucked under the other. I froze waiting to see what she was going to do. After a few moments she descended to her knees, taking a seat in the tall green grass. Her attention moved off of me to focus intently on taking tubes of color out of the grey box. I remember how she sat them on the grass in front of her self. It was a meticulous process, one by one till they were situated into a perfect line. She looked over to me with curved lips, like an asari smile. Perhaps it meant the same thing, happiness? Pleasure? I twitched my mandibles in          contemplation. It was a strange body language to be freely expressing towards me. The smile was brief, soon her attention was taken up by the large pad of paper she placed in her lap. Carefully, she proceeded to pick up one tube of paint after another, squeezing its contents out on a page next to her before pulling a brush out of her pocket.

Was she painting?

I tilted my head in curiosity while I continued to watch her for a few more seconds, not once did she move. Her eyes would glance up for have a second then immediately return to her lap, repeating the motion over and over and over again. It appeared that was all she was interested in doing so I pulled myself carefully back into the ship using what ever ledge I could to help maneuver my self along. My leg was indeed broken and the pain was persistent. The medigel was helping but it was minimal. When I pushed it back into place, or at least attempted too, it had become painfully apparent it was a full break. My make shift set was a poor effort at best. The pain was still radiating through. It was hard to place any weight on it even though I was sure the medigel was working its healing magic. Broken leg or not I knew it was imperative that I scouted out the surrounding area. If no one else was occupying the woodland space it had the potential to be a good military campsite. Rummaging through the wreckage I was trying to find anything I could use to make a crutch. At this point without something to lean on there would absolutely be no way I could leave the ship. After prodding the wreckage here and there I was able to dislocate a few metal beams. I tied them together with electrical tape and ripped fabric from the control seats to create a cushion under my arms. I leaned against it a few times testing its structure. Once satisfied I made my way back out into the grass.

The human female was still sitting there, hunched over, at the edge of the meadow working away on spirits know what. At least at this point I was positive that she posed no threat what so ever. Not that I was about to ever let my guard down of course.

I noticed her shift from the corner of my eye as I limped my way over to the woods.

“herew era oyu gingo?” She called over to me with hands circling her mouth in an attempt to project her sound. I looked back to where I was walking.

“Go home!” I lifted my chin shouting back to her. There was no rebuttal. I glanced once I reached the tree line to see her sitting in the grass with her pad of paper still in lap while she stared out towards me. There was a horribly dumb expression strewn across her face, then again it was a human face, they all looked pretty ridiculous to me.

 

* * *

 

Arabella Thorn

3rd Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

I watched him walk into the woods and it left me in a state confusion. Where in the world was he attempting to go? Especially on his hurt leg. The last thing he should have been doing was walking!

“Where are you going?” I called out to him, cupping my hands over my mouth to help my voice project across the meadow.

“Treva’ya et meut!” He called back to me with a lifted chin. My face twisted with confusion.

Was he thirsty?

Did he need wood for a fire?

There was definitely no way he would beable to complete such a task on a healing leg before dark, so I knew I had to assist him. I rushed back to my cabin and filled up a bucket of water in the outside hose. With careful steps I carried it back to his crashed ship setting it down near his pile of rations before rushing back into the woods. As I thought he still was not back yet. The sun was already beginning to set and there was still no sign of him. He was a soldier though, I figured he would know what he was doing, at least to some extent. I went back into the woods and gathered as many dry branches as I could possibly carry. Once more when I returned to his “camp” he was still not back. I placed the pile of branches down next to his bucket of water.

“Yoy!”

I whipped my head whipped around quickly at the familiar sound of his guttural voice. A growl filled his raised vocals as he quickly spewed off words faster than I could even comprehend with flaring mandibles. His eyes were narrowed and it did not take me long to understand the threat that lay behind them. Quickly, I lifted my legs high, running through the tall grass back to where I had left my supplies and sat down. He hobbled back to his ship with no supplies in hand. It left me wondering what in the world had he even been doing out there all this time? I watched him pause as he noticed the bucket of water and branches. The growl began to dismiss from his vocals as his head turned towards me. Our eyes connected from across the field then once again he shouted at me.

“Treva’ya et meut!”

I was beginning to think this was his favorite phrase to yell.

 

* * *

 

Aeius Sparatus

4th Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

By the fourth day I was still unable to get out or receive a signal. I could not figure it out, I check my systems over and over again, they were all working properly, my transmissions should have been working.

Once again that human woman was back at her same spot watching me underneath the shade of the forest line. I could not understand her and what her motive would be for constantly returning? From where I sat on the ground, my eyes shifted over to what was left of the pile of wood she had left for me the night before.

So I had been wrong in thinking she was stealing from me. The wood she supplied me with had actually come in handy that night. The temperature dropped lower than I could have ever anticipated. The fire I had fashioned with her gifted branches helped keep me warm through out the duration of the night. I had been so focused on scouting out the area that I had completely forgotten the potential need for warmth. That was a foolish mistake on my part. In all actuality, it was a very thoughtful gesture on her part, which was painfully hard to admit. The last thing a human would ever be is thoughtful.

From what I had discovered on my scout was that it appeared I had crashed in a desolate area. Besides a cabin that reeked of that female human’s scent, there appeared to be no other life around for miles. Why in spirits name was she out here then?

Was she a criminal?

Was this how humans punished their criminals? Complete and total isolation?

The thought was almost comical to me; it seemed too lenient of a punishment for humans. Though, this female did not come across to me as the criminal type. Nothing about her was aggressive or threatening. She was small, with no defined muscles that I could see. Very easily I would be able to snap her into two. She also did not appear to have any sense of self-preservation. Definitely not with the way she so blindly approached me, or continued coming back even after I had threatened her.

She did seem rather resourceful though.

The wood she had gathered was perfect for building a fire. Truthfully I could not be ungrateful over the water she brought.

I glanced back over to her while I fiddled with the electronics of my communications system. She was still sitting in the grass fumbling with spirits knows what. This time she was completely absorbed in her work so I was finally able to get a good look at her. I had yet to fully examine a human, well… a live one.

Her skin was pale with a light undertone of pink. It was left completely unprotected to outside elements- useless. The fringe on her head was a deep black. It was long and looked as though it was made of thousands upon thousands of small threads that reached to her hips. Again another useless attribute, honestly I was sure it got more in the way than served any good.

Her eyes were pointed at the corners much like the shape of a sun rising up over a horizon line. Her irises were a deep blue that appeared very pungent in color. Other than that there was not really any other notable features to take notice of. She was short, low muscle mass, and higher fat content around hips and chest. It seemed like troublesome locations for such distribution. The last thing these humans were obviously conditioned for was combat. Part of the reason why it was still surprising to me how diligently they were fighting back, though I personally blame their numbers and stubborn attributes.

I quickly looked back to my work when I noticed she was returning my gaze. After a few moments, once I was sure that she would no longer be looking in my direction, I glanced back over. Her lips were curved up into her cheeks; she was smiling.

Why in the spirits would she be smiling?

What was there for her to even smile about?

It made no sense to me. She sure was doing it a lot too.

Perhaps I was reading her expression wrong.

 

* * *

 

Arabella Thorn

4th Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

He kept looking over to me when he thought I was not looking.

It was so funny.

Perhaps he was as curious about me as I was of him!

The very thought made my chest jump in excitement. I really wanted to learn more about him. For now though, until he made the next move, I felt it was best to keep my distance. I really did not want to get growled at again. It was a rather frightening sound I must admit. Studying him from a distance, I could not stop thinking how magnificent he was to look at!

Dark umber plates helped to make up the features of his face that encompassed deep settled amber eyes. The fringe upon his head stretched back to fine exact points which elongated the proportions of his facial structure. The white paint that etched along the contours of his face was very striking, yet rather foreboding. They reminded me of tribal warrior marks. Perhaps that is why he wore them?

Beside facial and skin differences, his overall structure was not that far off from the bipedal figure of a human. He spoke a language, was obviously proficient with technology…or not- he had been fiddling with what I believed was a communications box for the majority of the day. There truthfully was not too much I found very different between us.

I’d been so focused on painting him that little by little I was beginning to notice the different emotions he displayed through his facial plates and mandibles. Though I did not know what they meant, it was a good first step.

I started packing up my paints and supplies around 3 pm. I still needed to get print work done today. All I had been doing that morning obsessing over his appearance instead of doing the work I actually needed to accomplish.

I could feel him watching me as I packed everything back up into my backpack. Looking over to where he sat in the grass, I raised up the paintings I had finished then set them down on the ground before heading back into the woods towards my cabin. Hopefully he would go and retrieve the paintings.

Hopefully he would like them.


	3. 5th and 6th Statements

Aeius Sparatus

5th Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

My fifth day stranded and still I am unable to make any sort of contact. I know that I had fixed the communication system up to pare, but there just seemed to be no signals making it through the atmosphere at the moment.

It was a frustrating.

I was completely cut off from my fleet during the middle of war and stranded with the enemy.

My leg was still extremely tender.

It appears I have avoided infection but the pain was still ever present. To put any sort of weight on it was less than pleasurable, though it was healing nicely… well at least as nice as it could given the current circumstances.

It was probably around noon when I noticed the human female had yet to come visit me today.

I found it rather suspicious.

Consistently she had come and seen me for the last four days but now, she was nowhere in sight. My gaze wandered over to the paintings she had left on the ground at the forest edge. I had placed them upon a box next to my makeshift camp area. I had seen her purposefully raise them in the air towards me so of course I had to go investigate. That was when the secret of what she had been doing over there, after all those hours was finally revealed.

She had been painting… me.

I was surprised to say the least, it was honestly the last thing I had ever expected. Some were studies and some were scenes with the crashed ship surrounded by a forest horizon. The way her brush strokes plated my features was nothing like I had ever seen in turian art.

Honestly, no matter how much I did not want to admit it, they were mesmerizing. It was truthfully a wonderful depiction. I was painted strongly with solid strokes of color that contrasted the small delicate details of the surroundings. In no way could I lie, I’ve always been a lover of art- well, turian art. There was some asari art that was… alright, but they tend to be focused on abstractions that was never in my taste.

This though, was this what all human art was like?

How could a species that could create such a skillful and tantalizing piece of work be so oblivious to the interworking’s of the galaxy surrounding them?

I fingered through paintings one last time before I directed my attention back towards the tree line. I could feel my body beginning to grow more agitated by the second.

Where was that small female?

I needed to go locate her, just incase she was planning something against me. Perhaps, this had all been a ruse to throw me off and lower my defenses.

Spirits be damned, I would never let something like that happen!

Using my make shift crutch built with metal and wiring, I slowly made my way into the forest with a pistol at my hip. It was a bit of a trek, nothing too strenuous though. As I got closer to the camp a melodic noise was filling the air. It was a voice with a sweet octave that permeated the space between the trees. I crouched down the best I could from behind a bush to peer out onto the cabin. There the culprit of the noise stood.

It was her!

The sound that was filling the air and making my manidbles lightly twitch with the beat was her, the human female! It was like nothing I had ever heard before.

Unlike turian singing, it was not dual toned. Salarian usually fell a bit flat relying more on technical feats than emotion, while asari voice didn’t carry enough- I suppose that word would be grit or robustness? - that added a dramatic and dark quality to the voice.

Naturally apart of me hated the fact that I was enjoying the sounds of a human voice, but there was no possible way that I couldn’t. The small female continued to sing while she nailed together large planks of wood into different sized squares. She was making art canvases. I sat down behind the barrier of my bush and listened to her work for what ending up turning into hours.

Off and on her voice would get interrupted by the harsh hum of a table saw while she cut pieces of wood, but it would quickly return either in a new tune or continuing on with the old.

From her paintings to her voice this human was talented to say the least. She was more cultured than I had imagined humans ever being. I caused my mind to drift back to the opera houses of Palaven where the greatest plays would be held telling extravagant stories of battles and warriors. I realized at that moment it had been a while since I had attended one. I had become so caught up with military duties cultural stimulations became optional. At that moment I promised myself that when the war was over the first thing I needed to do upon returning home was to go see an opera, or attend an art exhibition.

I needed to maintain a cultural balance in my life.

That is what would set turians apart from humans.

With this female it was apparent that she was unbalanced. The cultural aspect she excelled in but military- there was none. It was easy to tell by the posture which she held her self in and the way she moved.

Carefully, I stood back up from my position and headed back to my crashed camp. Perhaps it was because there was really nothing else for me to do but I was finding myself becoming more and more curious about what her story was.

Was she a criminal?

Was she here because she had been exiled?

If so why in the world would the humans choose to exile some one with so much talent?

This was exactly why they were the lesser species, no doubt about it.

* * *

 

 

Arabella Thorn

6th Statement

Nevera Basen 2157

Having finished the series of etchings I had been in the process of printing I decided to take the rest of the day off and go visit my alien friend.

Arriving at his crash site I found him, as usual messing, with his communications radio. The scene caused my lips to purse.

I felt bad.

With the on going war, communications to the area had been down. There was no way he was going to be able to send out or receive any messages until a connection was reestablished, and who knew when that would be.

Getting bored of watching him grow more and more frustrated, I turned my attention towards the meadow’s field. Over night small purple flowers had begun to bloom.

Wild flowers.

Soon the meadow would be filled with them.

That would be the perfect time to capture reference photos and to paint! It would also be the prime time to collect flowers for pressing. There were so many things I could do with the flowers once they were collected. What I had been most excited about though was the prospect of combining the flowers with paper pulp in order to make flower embedded paper.

It was a process I have never done before but was very excited to try. Without a doubt it would surely add that extra level to my prints.

I began to wander around the edge of the meadow picking a few buds and dandelions here and there.

I decided it would be a wise thing to do as then I could document growth stages and perhaps apply it into my artwork. While I wondered about I strategically inched my way closer and closer to the turian’s camp. I was hoping he wouldn’t noticed and was rather proud with how close I had gotten, but of course, it did not take long for him to catch on to my devious ploy.

He quickly scooted himself in front of me blocking my forward motion. I am not sure how he even managed to maneuver himself so fast with a hurt leg. Naturally, I had not been paying complete attention as I figured if I did not notice him perhaps he wouldn’t feel my eyes and noticed me. It was a stupid assumption, but worth the try nonetheless.

Standing tall before me, I finally realized how large he actually was. He would truly have been a height abnormality amongst human standards. Turian I was not sure. His very presence gave off this commanding energy that demanded respect. I could feel the history and expanse of his culture just from our close proximity. I knew they were an older race than humans, by how much I was not sure.

“Ieska eta gry?” His voice lowered before me. There was no growl though so I did feel some relief.

“Flowers.” I held up what I had picked to him. He blinked down at them before blowing hot air from his nose to shake their petals. My lips curled into a frown as their beautiful colors fell from their stem.

Destroying them with his breath was not the response I wanted.

He was supposed to breath in their smell not blow them out!

So I tried once more.

After a second of picking I held up the flowers repeating their name. I raised them to my own nose, breathed them in lightly, then held them back out in his direction.

His mandibles flitted before he leaned his head forward and breathed in through his nostrils. Unfortunately, the intake of breath was a bit too strong and before I knew it he had inhaled dandelion fluff into his nose.

Immediately, his three fingered, gloved, hands rose to his face while snorting and rubbing ensued.

I covered my mouth with my hands in horror.

Suffocating him was not my intended action by showing him the flowers!

After finally clearing out his nasal passage, his eyes stared back to mine with such intensity it forced me to take a step back. Before I knew it he had reached down grabbing a dandelion for himself and held it out into my face.

“Flowers.” His eyes glared down to me.

With great hesitation I breathed in causing its fluff to get sucked into my nasal cavity. Now I was the one rubbing at my nose trying to snort of the plants light fibers.

The turian stood proudly before me with raised brow plates and flared mandibles. I could hear a light hum release from his chest. Well at least we were even now, and there appeared to be no hard feelings.


	4. 7th Statement

* * *

 

Aeius Sparatus

Statement 7

Nevera Basen 2157

 

I’ve decided that the best thing I could do now in my current situation was to monitor the human female. Perhaps I would uncover something about their species that would aid us in the war.

So, that was my plan for the day, to closely monitor the female and carefully document all of her actions.

 

The start of her day turned out to be very boring and uneventful to say the least. From my hidden location in the tree line surrounding the cabin, I watched her spend a few hours wandering about the ground. The female was dressed in minimal clothing. Nothing worth of any true bodily protection. The pale skin of her legs was open to the environment as well as her arms. Spirits forbid, some crazed animal ran out of the woods to attack her. She would be utterly defenseless.

The female, fumbled with things and papers here and there, nothing too interesting.

 

By midday she ate some food then began painting on a large canvas that was hanging on the outside of the cabin. That was a bit more interesting to watch.

Her whole body moved in order to create the strokes of blue and purple on the already painted black canvas. It reminded me of space.

It was a vast open environment that she began to accent with trees and other means of life just floating solitary in the open abyss. After a few hours, the female was forced to take a break when her eyes drifted up to the sky. I watched as she lifted her hands and began to rub her shoulders. It appeared to me that she was possibly incurring some sort of sensitivity to the sun! Especially with the way her skin was beginning to redden.

This was a note to definitely take down; useless human skin was still horribly useless.

 

I watched as she walked over to an outside table where some sort of tubbed container sat. She proceeded to squeeze the tube of its contents, and began to apply what appeared to be a white-cream-lotion to her uncovered arms.

Sun sensitivity.

That was surely something that could be used to turian advantage. I was getting excited now. Such information made the whole crash worthwhile. My thoughts were already racing with ideas when the female finished applying the cream and went back to her painting. She was at it for another 3 hours or so then ceased her progress. Truthfully, it was not horrible to observe. In fact, I have to admit that I found myself rather mesmerized by the whole process.

By the end she was completely covered in paint.

 

I quietly followed her around to the side of the cabin where there was an outside shower. My eyes widened as she began to discard her clothes.

It was worse than I had thought. Oh so much worse.

There was no means of protection to the human body what-so-ever beside a small patch of hair located at the groin!

They were just soft fleshy vulnerable things!  I had at least presumed that there was some sort of protective plating possibly around the chest or abdomen to protect vital organs, but there was nothing! At least asari had their biotics to keep them protected, but humans? Spirits, it was beyond me. They were damn well lucky they had their armor. One swipe of my clawed hand could have easily left her as a disemboweled and bloody mess on the ground. The female would not know what even hit her. She was not paying any mind to her surroundings while she bathed.

Oblivious, she was absolutely oblivious.

I had been watching her for over eight hours at this point and she was still unaware.

What sorts of training did they put their citizens though? Any turian would had at least picked up on my presence after the fourth hour, because at that point I really was not trying to be that stealth. I had even snapped a twig just to see if I could get a rise out of her. There was no response.

Perhaps that was why she was out here on her own. Maybe the humans saw this female as useless as well?

There was a few aspects about her that did manage to capture my attention.

The first one was that her hips carried much more fat around the area than the average turian woman. They curved around tying into her legs, which to my surprise, appeared to be much stronger than I had originally perceived.

Her upper body was greatly lacking in muscular strength. Her lower body seemed to make up for that deficiency.

Another point I took noticed of in her female form was the two collections of fat that gathered at her chest. It was another attribute that turian woman lacked. They baffled me.

What in the world was the purpose of them? In fact, they appeared to get in the way more than anything. Along with the need of extra fingers and toes, human bodies were rather unnecessary.

 

After feeling that I had got my fill of inquiry for the day, I wandered back into the woods to gather more wood for the night’s fire.

It was an absolutely frustrating task.

Trying to keep weight off of my foot while carrying an arm full of twigs and limbs was a complete challenge.

After much struggle, I finally decided that it would be best for me to make two trips back to the camp with what I had gathered. So I left half of the pile in the woods and made my way back towards the crash site.

When I arrived, I found myself frozen with surprise.

There, next to my half circle of supplies, was a newly refilled bucked of water and a new pile of wood for a fire.

I quickly looked around the meadow but the female was nowhere in sight.

She had come back and refilled my supplies while I was gone.

Honestly… I was left a bit speechless by this action.

Why was she doing this?

Why was she trying to help me?

My suspicion of her rose with this action, but a small part of me also felt… warmed. It was strange. No matter how many times I played through what advantages helping me would supply her with, there was nothing. There was no purpose for her to be behaving as she was, and yet here I was, sitting comfortably with water and a burning fire to keep me warm through the night.


End file.
